This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Containers must be filled with liquids or gases for numerous technical applications. A typical application in this respect are motor vehicles where housings, circuits, equalizing reservoirs and the like have to be filled with fuel, lubricants, coolants, and other operating substances. In the manufacturing process, these vehicles must be filled, for example, with brake fluid, power steering fluid, coolant, refrigerant, windshield wiper fluid, and fuel. These media are fed via hoses and special adapters to the respective circuits of the vehicles. The hoses typically include multiple lines with different functions for vacuum application, back suction, filling, aerating, as well as for electrical cables.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,799,614 B1 describes a respective filling adapter for a container to be filled with media. This filling adapter is particularly designed for the initial filling of containers with operating substances on assembly lines at manufacturers of motor vehicles and is for this purpose equipped with a hose pack as well as electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic lines.
To perform the filling, a worker has to bring filling adapter and hose pack to the vehicle depending on the respective position of the filling station and connect it to the ports of the circuits to be filled. A gripping element into which a worker can grasp with one hand is configured on the adapter for this purpose. The gripping element is either designed as a cover of the hose pack or as a separate handle, which is preferably disposed on the adapter head. But both variants have disadvantages:
The hose cover design results in a great overall length of the entire adapter, which impairs handling by a worker due to the weight and because the center of gravity is often near the front. At the same time, the handle must inevitably have a large diameter, which is outside the dimensions required in standards, because the media lines have to be conducted through the handle.
In the design with a handle on the adapter head, the gripping angle and thus the access position on the container are permanently defined, such that a worker can encounter problems when handling the adapter depending on the exact space and access options available.